QUEBECThe Parti Québécois opposition is slamming the Couillard government over slashing the budget for protecting the French language by $1.6 million since it came to power last year.

The Office québécois de la langue française, the agency responsible for applying Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, was the hardest hit, having to absorb a cut of $789,000 since 2014. The budgets of the Conseil supérieur de la langue française and for the “realization of activities from the promotion of the French language” were also reduced.

The details of the cuts emerged in a legislative committee meeting Tuesday. The PQ’s point person on the language file, Bourget MNA Maka Kotto, said the number of inspections by the OQLF have “dropped by a third.”

“That’s enormous, especially given that the cases of non-respect for Bill 101 have multiplied in the last few months, notably at the CHUM and Davie (shipyard) construction sites,” he said.

Although they twice complained to the OQLF, workers building the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal superhospital told Le Devoir they still need to speak English with their anglophone bosses from the consortium Construction Santé Montréal. English also dominates at the Davie shipyard in Lévis even though an employee complained to the OQLF five months ago, the Journal de Québec reported.

Tuesday, Kotto criticized Culture Minister Hélène David, who is also responsible for the French language charter, for letting the number of inspectors at the OQLF drop from eight to four.

The Coalition Avenir Québec also criticized David for the lack of inspectors.

“It seems to me that four inspectors to ensure that Bill 101 is being respected across Quebec is very few, and it’s very poor,” the CAQ’s Claire Samson said.

David shot back that three of the inspectors who left were temporary workers whose contracts ran out under the previous PQ government.

“It’s surprising because the French language is supposed to be very, very important to the Parti Québécois, but there was this attrition from eight to five (inspectors) and since then, in February 2015, another one retired,” she said.

Jean-Pierre Le Blanc, a spokesperson for the OQLF, said it can handle its workload with fewer inspectors. The OQLF’s 60 “francization agents” can also do inspections and pick up some of the slack, he said.

The OQLF has “updated its practices” to allow employees to carry out more inspections than before, about 570 per year, he said.

The OQLF made some changes after it caused a controversy by warning Montreal restaurant Buonanotte on St. Laurent Blvd. in 2013 about the lack of French on its menus and asked it to remove words like “pasta.”

“It’s clear that the pasta episode brought certain changes, a different vision of things, but that’s not the whole reason for the modernization,” Le Blanc said.

The incident, which became known as “Pastagate,” forced the resignation of the OQLF’s director, Louise Marchand.

Number of complaints registered with the Office de la langue française:

2014-2015: 2,534

2013-2014: 3,107

2012-2013: 4,136

Source: Minister responsible for protection and promotion of the French language